Okay, before I get this started let's me just get my personal thoughts on Abby out of the way so there is no misunderstanding about what's to come. Abby... is an overall good character. She's does have depth, goes through a pretty solid character arc and I honestly don't think she's as bad as fans make her out to be... That being said, well... Let's do a little experiment.
Let's pretend that Ellie and Joel never appeared in TLOU2, we hear about Jackson but we never go there and the story focused solely on the W.L.F.'s fight with the Scars. All of Abby's friends are killed by either Scars or W.L.F. traitors. In this version of events Abby has no relation to Joel or Ellie, she never went to Jackson, she never killed Joel and Ellie has no reason to go after her.
The plot is the aforementioned conflict between the W.L.F. and the Scars but Abby's arc is her growing relationship with Lev and the final boss of the game is Lev's mother and that part of the game is largely unchanged from the what we get in the game and likewise ends with Lev staying Abby's hand and Abby choosing to spare Lev's mom.
If that was the only part of the game, if we focus solely on that part of the story how well does it hold up? Honestly, it's not that bad, but it ain't that great and the reason for that is simply, Abby's arc is just Joel's from TLOU1. No really, it's the same thing, violent killer forms a bond with a child and through that bond they slowly regain their humanity. We've seen this before and while I would argue that Abby is a well written character I would also argue that she's not as charismatic as Joel and her bond with Lev isn't as engaging Joel's is with Ellie.
Part of the problem with that is that we don't get to spend to much time with Abby bonding with Lev. Lev isn't introduced in Abby's campaign for a good 2 and a half hours and when they do meet up Abby leaves Lev right away to go and meet up with Owen. As soon as Joel meets up with Ellie the two are almost always together for most of the game, only getting separated once or twice and both times you feel the impact that separation has on them.
Abby's side of the story falls into one of the easiest traps that most sequels fall into, it's just the first story again only with slightly less interesting characters. Joel in TLOU1 was allowed to smile, was allowed to show sympathy and was allowed to bond with more then just Ellie and the people he bonded with her just as complex and interesting as he was.
Abby almost never smiles in TLOU2, she shows little to no sympathy to anyone who she's isn't already close to and most of the characters she interacts with aren't as complex or as interesting as she is. Manny is a regular nice guy, Mel spends most of the game being cold to Abby and Owen cheats on Mel with Abby and Lev is Ellie without her sense of humor.
Lev has a fascinating backstory that should make him as compelling as Ellie but instead we don't get to spend that much time with him and the game spends to much time trying to juggle everyone else in Abby's life, plus her conflict with Ellie, plus her tragic past that goes over the death of her father, plus the war between the W.L.F. and the Scars. TLOU1 was just about Joel trying to get Ellie to the Fireflies and the game kept the focus on that relationship and used other characters to help flesh both of them out.
No one in TLOU2 helps to flesh out Abby or Lev's characters. Lev kills his mother before we ever get a chance to meet her, all of Abby's friends are completely one note the characters who are the most complex and interesting are from the first game and one of them is killed of one hour into the main game.
So, IMO, TLOU2 doesn't work as well as it could have no matter how you slice it. One story is a revenge story that doesn't let you accomplish your main objective and the other half of the game is a rehash of the first game with less engaging characters. What's funny is that I'm honestly not bothered by the fact that Abby killed Joel, I'm more bothered by how the game wasted her by having her constantly pair up with characters who weren't as fleshed out as she was and didn't spend as much time as it should have on the relationship between Abby and Lev.
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